Serious eating

As the lilies go into serious bloom each year, the serious eating also starts.  We had pancakes this morning with raspberries and saskatoons from our yard, I had our strawberries for snack, and supper was a taco salad featuring our greens, our tomatoes, our zucchini, and our single ripe pepper (thanks greenhouse). I also picked two types of cucumbers, beet greens, dill, and onion stalks today.

Anwyn and I were sitting out in the backyard this morning just soaking in the beauty.  The peonies are finishing up, but there are lots of other things blooming, particularly roses, lupines, delphiniums, sedums, and lilies.  The front has four colors, all versions of orange and yellow, with a mix of day-lilies, tiger lilies etc. The back also has some errant orange which I should dig up, and lots of pinks, whites, and maroons. Lilies are such great cut flowers, and  they will bloom in various forms for the next couple of weeks, ending the time when massive swaths of perennials bloom in the yard.

My sisters start arriving with their families in the next several days, and almost everyone will be here except my parents.  Mike made a video for you, Mom, so you can see what is up right now in the yard while everyone else is here in person. I hope I get to see a picture of the garlic you just dug, even if it was a bad crop due to heat.  I need to dig mine this week, too, and I am expecting the same crummy state for my early garlic.

The cherries are changing color, and one of the trees has an infected branch that I need to cut off once it freezes.  I always want to eat them as soon as they change color, even though they are much sweeter later.  We'll see how all the small cousins do with them, as they are very low hanging fruit. The apples are higher, and the ripe raspberries and strawberries should give the grazers a focus.  Teela is hoping to arrive in time for the peas, and it is looking good.  I think I will have my first pods later this week.

Mike is busy laying down additional soaker hoses for watering.  He set up our two boxes on the south side of the garage and house last summer, and is irrigating the strawberries and one front bed this year.  We have so many beds now that the three rain barrels only keep up for 4 days without rain, and we've had little rain for a couple of weeks.  Hopefully this will reduce serious time spent watering, and focus more of his time on the serious eating (and, of course, video production).

My only unhappiness is that our local rabbits have finally discovered our yard.  We found scat, and one sent of my bean plants went from blooming to stubs in one night.  You can see it in the video. Hopefully the bunny doesn't find a way into the backyard where most of the veggies are, or notice the north bed of salad greens. It is exactly the sort of place that Peter Rabbit would pig out.

Still about the Fruit

In July, I wrote about how it is all about the fruit in my yard right now.  Well, it is three weeks later, and it is still all about the fruit.  And also the house painting.  But mostly the fruit.

After we finished painting the house this afternoon, we took a well deserved break.  I spent time in the hammock, and Mike sat beside me in the shade playing guitar.  Cue my bad habit - one that my mother and I share. Really it is a trait that might be good or might be bad, depending.

I am looking at the yard and thinking about how happy I am.  Then I see another apple fall off the tree, apparently as the result of nothing in particular. 20 minutes later I am handing Mike a massive wicker basket of apples after having picked four other ice cream containers full.  We already have three large ziplocs frozen down and have made apple sauce once.  Next our relaxing time is used with making apple sauce, drying apples in the dryer, and baking fruit compote. I have barely picked 1/4 of our apples to date so this insanity will happen over and over.

Today we rearranged the freezer to prepare for more apples and the cherries we will pick soon.  So Mike knew what he was saying when he innocently suggested that perhaps some of the apples could fall without us doing much beyond tossing them into the ferns. He had already canned 5 quarts of apple sauce when he commented, but I still gave him a black look.  No one gets between a James girl and potential fruit without collateral damage.

I felt this same way visiting Teela last week, even when it wasn't my garden and even when it was just tomatoes, which do not count as real fruit in the James girl lexicon.  She has a large garden in Virginia, and it has a number of volunteer cherry tomatoes. Teela doesn't like to limit the choices of anyone (which includes tomatoes), so she let them live while she weeded out not fruit bearing weeds. As a result, she has a lot of tomatoes.  We picked at least 4 cups of cherry tomatoes every time we went to her garden (every second day).  She doesn't eat tomatoes and Peff was out of the town.  The kids eat a few.  Teela also had her own beef steak tomatoes as well, many of which get slashed by crows and need to used right away to prevent rotting.  I was obsessed with how all those tomatoes could be used no tomatoes were wasted.  Even when there were clearly too many and I don't love them.  I know it is not quite sane...

Mike is in for a long couple years. Especially when the kids leave home but all the fruit keeps producing more. It will still be about the fruit.

On the upside, we've all been enjoying wonderful garden based meals everyday since I got home and Mike is happy to be off bachelor food (which appears to be veggie hot dogs, pizza and a variety of non-meals like crackers.  He has already had tomato/basil pasta, lentil soup with fresh tomatoes, fresh salsa and bruschetta, apple pie and roasted new root veggies like potatoes, carrots and beets with chard. It will be long years, but with good food.  Really that's what James girls are all about.  We have many projects, but you eat well.

No where close to "too much."

This time of year, we have more tomatoes that a person can sensibly use, so we make a lot if pizza. If you are going to make pizza, you might as well make it for 16 people. The outdoor kitchen has made that much better.

New outdoor kitchen on shoestring budget

We find we use it for lots of different things, but Mike particularly loves cooking out there. Last night we had some (16) friends and family over, and ate pizza for the second time in three days.  Mike made six pizzas, and we still had sauce leftover.

Typically we use about three pounds of tomatoes  in the sauce, and Mike has some new heirloom tomatoes we used for the sauce.

Mike makes the whole pizza using the pizza oven, even the sauce

We also made one with brie, apple, honey and sage that doesn't use sauce, and one with a pesto sauce made from our basil.  Mike has gotten so obsessed with the pizza that we do most of it outside unless there is wind (it blows the parmesan away) or rain, which there was last night.  Even so, Mike made the sauce outside on the pizza oven (he takes the top off). You can see the full set of summer project pictures in his photo album. It is important to note that making six different types of pizza is no where close to too much pizza by Mike's definition.

In addition to pizza, we mostly make things that use up what we have in the garden.  I made a slaw with cabbage, onion tops, apple, carrots and sugar snaps, and a salad with roasted beets, cucumber, feta, pumpkin seeds, carrots, red onion, greens and roasted veggie chips. We bought the feta and the seeds (too late in the year for our own seeds - we'll make some next month), but the rest is mostly from our house except some of the greens.  I also made a dressing of Mike's pesto, garlic, salt and pepper, mayo and homemade yogurt. Apple crisp (using up our apples), our salsa and chips, and a tray of plain veggies rounded out the meal.  Thanks to Jodi for the pop, which was not grown in the garden.

Before we had everyone over, Mike and I did a big biking circuit on the river bank and tried out the new workout area, which was super fun.  I tried all the equipment as designed, and Mike played with everything in as many illicit ways as possible.  That was a great morning, but the afternoon was better.  I harvested onions and Leo made them into a 6 foot braid.  We planted garlic together and I dug carrots, and picked the beans and the last of the peas. I also picked five large zucchinis which I frozen down in 30 cups. I had a sixth that I tried to get Anna to take, but she was too smart. I have a few more apples to pick today, but I am mostly done.  I absolutely love picking processing and cooking my own food, even when Mike frowns at the zuchini and declares, "That is way too much."  A day like yesterday is not about excess, it is about largess, right?

Summer Projects

I love the opportunity to putter around the yard in the summer for lots of reasons, but my two favourite are picking fresh foods to eat and doing summer projects.  This year, they have intersected in Mike's summer kitchen.

Summer Kitchen
We went to Gus and Greta's in early July, and while we were there, we saw their summer kitchen. They have an outside table, and a grill, burners and an oven.  They also have a covered area where they can eat.  The covered area is less important here, where if it is raining it is usually cool enough to cook inside.  However, we were generally inspired by their ability to be outside so much, and Mike decided he needed a kitchen, too.

We have toyed with the idea of building a cob over or buying a pizza over for years. We liked the idea of being able to make pizza at the right temperature, and liked the idea of baking outside in the summer.  We've thought about building an outdoor kitchen a number of times, but just not acted because we were waiting to decide with option to do.  Then I found a pizza oven at Canadian Tire. Alton Brown might have called it a uni-tasker, but Mike already has it doing nan, bannock and breakfast scones.  As soon as we knew we have the oven solution (and at a fraction of the cost of the other options), Mike wanted to build a kitchen to go with it.

Last week during Mike's off days, we got most of the way finished the construction of the kitchen.  We still need to mount the hose sink and put up the trellis, but it is perfectly functional already.  It has a pizza oven, BBQ and a large cedar L shaped counter.  I like a lot of the details like the hanging utensils, the covered storage and the copper sink. I'll post pictures when the sink is done.

We've been using the cooking area a lot for cutting things, making pizza and flat bread, and serving.  It will be even better for me when I wash veggies out there and I have completed the compost area.

Picking Fresh Foods
This week the garden in in full swing.  I have been picking a lot of peas, beets, beans and cucumber, and we've been enjoying cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and saskatoons as well.  Sunday we went to a U-Pick to get saskatoons.  My usual place doesn't have them anymore, but Moon River was a great place to pick and the prices were reasonable.  They were shocked how quickly we picked 6 pails, but they didn't expect Leo and Anwyn to pick any because they are teenagers.

I have been making lots with our fresh veggies, including stir fry, many salads and bruschetta. I also love fruit salads, crisp, and fresh salsa's.  Mike has been pickling and making yogurt to eat with all the fresh fruit and sauces. We are having a picnic at the river today at lunch and we are eating fresh bruschetta and nachos, devilled eggs, cherries and bean salad - all made fresh with our food.

My side bed has been doing well, but I am growing cauliflower and broccoli for the first time and they have both gone to seed. My kohlrabi and greens are doing well in the same bed, though. I'll need to pay closer attention in the future.

Rainy day lull

It was a late spring, and the last week has been a hard one. Lilah has been very sick, and the human parts of the family have been, too. I was home two days last week, and Mike and Anwyn were each home three. Leo is just getting sick now.  In the midst of all that mucous and vomit, it has rained.  In the last two weeks, there have only been two days where it didn't rain most of the day. When you are sick, though, it doesn't mater as much that you are housebound.



The rain has slowed garden production, which means it is the right pace for my ill family. The asparagus just finished, and we have been eating herbs and a variety of greens for a couple of weeks. Mike ate one cherry tomato today and I made a nice brochette with the fresh basil yesterday. The big star, however, is the flowers.

It was a hard winter and I lost some perennials.  Because things were late, however, my tulips, narcissus, flox, iris, chives, anemone, and lily-of-the-valley are all blooming at the same time (check out Mike's June album of garden pics to see all the purple and pink). The yard is a sea of pinks and purples and the rain has kept them all frozen together for a protracted period of time.  Mike and I look out our window in the rain and admire the view. Everything looks incredibly lush, and it is cool and humid.

In breaks in the rain in the last couple days (typically no more than 40 mins.) we go out and do a bit to try to keep the yard under control. Mowing, weeding the garden and picking rhubarb to freeze all occur in these little windows of time. That is also about right for sickness, as we need to recover for about 2 hours for each 1/2 hour slowly pushing the mower. As you might imagine, we've been mostly eating out of the freezer as no one was hungry and no one was well enough to cook except Leora, who is writing finals.

Today we finally felt well enough to make all our meals: blueberry pancakes in the am, veggie soup and rhubarb crisp for lunch, and a fresh garden salad for supper later tonight. My greens and brasicas (think cabbage and kohlrabi) are happily co-habitating in a square foot bed on the driveway that tolerates all the damp very well.

All things considered, the misfortune has fit together so well as to actually seem like a pleasant lull combined with feeling crummy.

Belated Mother's Day x2

It has been a yucky spring.  Most days in April and May have been unseasonably cold, and then there is the wind and rain.  My crocuses haven't even bloomed yet (read last year's blog about the late snows waiting my crocuses until the first week of May). Two years ago at this time, I had my typical long list of flowers and vegetables - I am usually eating asparagus right now. Anyway, when the weather man said it would be nice yesterday, and cold, wet and windy for the rest of the long weekend when local gardeners always plan, I believed him. Unfortunately, that meant yesterday was crazy.

Mike had done the tilling and we'd bought bedding plants Friday night and the Saturday before. Since it frozen 3 times last week and nearly froze two more, everything has been living in the greenhouse with only a few days hardening off. Usually we plant a couple hours each day over the three day weekend, but we did all 6 hours yesterday.  Mike didn't complain once. My teenage assistants were less restrained, but everyone worked hard and was very tired.

Anwyn transplants

We started the day be creating the mixture we use for potting our plants. Mike laid a tarp out and we combined compost, peat and soil.  Then
we started transplanting strawberries, which is hard work.  It took us nearly two hours just to complete that and some general potting, and then we started in the garden.

Moving strawberries

This year one third of what we planted we grew ourselves or it came from seed we saved. It is always really exciting to put seeds from Leo's work back into the ground or go from bare dirt to corn, tomatoes and squashes that are already up.  Because I use a staggered planting system, not everything went in this weekend. I will plant additional beans, chard etc. over the next three weeks. We pre-started kohlrabi and beets as well, so I am looking forward to seeing how those do.

I still have a few more things to do today, like cleaning the fountain and installing floating row covers, but they are all things that can handle the rain that's coming. So far the week ahead after the long weekend looks finally sunny, so my plants should really get growing. I am the most excited about two new iris I picked out for myself and first food (likely greens, asparagus and strawberries). View Mike's other spring pictures.

Today is fake Mother's Day at our house. Anwyn was at National's last weekend placing 13th when she could have been home loving up her mom.  Since I don't care much about the formal date, we just moved things. The Diakuw family celebration also moved, so I am doing that at 11 and looking forward to a great breakfast from Leora.  While Anwyn was gone she sent me a little writing about my habit of petting her hair (which she tolerates in private and hates in public).  I think it made me as happy as my exhausting/triumphant day of planting yesterday.  Here it is with her permission.

One of Two Anwyn Mother's Day Compositions:

I just lay there. Her warm hand stroking my hair. Even though I hadn't brushed it, or washed it. That happy feeling you get when you hug someone you love pulsed through my veins. I looked up at her and she smiled down at me, with eyes that could never hate, never cause pain.

"Now you just have to let me do this in public." she sighed longingly, yet jokingly. I laugh. As if.

"Stroking my ponytail in a public setting is very different from in a private one." She sighed mockingly. 

"I can't help myself," she said feigning innocence. "its just there, and its so pretty. Its subconscious." I smiled to myself, what was it about my hair that she loved so much?

"Well," I mused. "if your not careful I might withhold the privilege all together." I jested. She looked at me with puppy dog eyes. Even though thats the daughters card to play. The she discarded the act and chuckled as I lay my head back down on her lap.

"Sure you will sweetie." She said, and resumed petting my hair. 

Resident dancer,

Debate extraordinaire,

None of it matters,

As long as your there. 

You see me at my best,

You see me at my worst,

Your beautiful and numerous sweaters,

Are stained by my tears, and you know me to the letter.

Your better than my best, 

And I'm constantly impressed,

I've known you all my life

 and know you to the core,

I have always loved you 

and you I will adore. 

Happy Mother's Day mom, I love you 

Seeds of Sping

I am about two months away from planting my garden and there has been some serious melting in Saskatoon. It was also -27C with windchill when I woke up yesterday, so it must be spring.

Last year at this time I was blogging about planning a good garden, crop rotation etc. This year I am going to start with seeds. Because I like to grow my own plans from seed whenever I can -  I'll actually start planting next weekend in my grow table. I start with the things that need the longest time to be ready to plant like tomatoes, flowers and basil. I go shopping for the seeds the weekend before so I have time to hunt around the city for varieties I want, but cannot find.

When I figure out what I need to buy, I consider four things.

• What seed did I grow last year that I can plant?  I am at the early end of the seed saving journey, but this year I have already replanted my garlic in the fall.  And I have seeds to plant for sunflower, climbing beans. basil, dill, cilantro, and corn.
• What seeds did I buy last year that I can still use?  I don't usually hold seed beyond a year, because the germination rate drops too sharply. However, a seed package can range from $1.59 to $7.00 depending on the type of seed or how much there is in the package, and I buy a lot a seed. I try to save what I can. I have small peppers left (Cayenne, Jalapeño, Hungarian Wax, and Habanero) so I only need to buy Bell peppers. I also have some tomatoes (Lemon Boy, Tiny Tim and Yellow Pear), two colours of zucchini, basil, red beets and carrots.
• What do I want so little of that it is more economical to buy seedlings?  This is a small list, usually varieties I am testing or things I don't want much of, like eggplant and pumpkin.
• How much do I need of the seeds I am buying? I am headed out to my closest supplier (Early's) later today, so I need to do a quick calculation of what to buy. My shopping list will include: 2 medium bags of peas (sugar snap and shell), one type of climbing bean (not the type I already have), a medium package of green bush beans, small squash packages of two or three varieties, larger tomatoes like Early Girl, usually two or three different types I want to try that are zone 2 hardy and a variety of small packages I don't have left over. This year that will be Bell peppers, spinach, lettuce, chard, cabbage, kohlrabi and two types of cucumbers. I calculate the amount based on a map I build with number of seedlings per foot. It is based on a square foot intensive gardening technique.

My only exception to the obsessive planning are flower seeds. They are always spontaneous selections that compliment what I have now.

This will be all the seeds I have for the year, except onion sets (bought in May before planting) and maybe seed potatoes. I am considering not growing potatoes this year, as they are still a very cheap food and I'd like to give them a rest because we had potato bugs last year.

One other change this year is looking for plants with a smaller rootball. I got a book on straw bale gardening from Brad and want to give that a try.

Looks like dirt

When you first plant your garden in the spring, it mostly looks like dirt. We gardeners like to call it soil, and describe its properties at length, but when you sit in it a lot, you still get dirty.  This long weekend I planted as I always do, despite a substantial sinus cold.  Bending over is no good when you have a sinus cold, and planting late is equally painful, so sitting in the dirt was the best option.

Fortunately for me, Mike did a bit of the heavy work before he left for Anwyn's basketball tournament in Regina.  He was pleased with her silver medal; I was pleased that the potatoes, carrots and most of the peas were planted before he departed.  Because I plant in stages, I didn't have to do everything, but there was still a lot to do.

I started by transplanting my bedding plants.  Those are herbs, tomatoes (6 varieties), peppers (5 varieties)

and various members of the squash family. I did not plant pumpkins this year as I still have lots from last year, but I had two types of cucumbers, experimental cantaloup (unlikely to bear fruit in this zone), 2 varieties of zucchini, and butternut squash. I also put in corn, peas, green onions and kohlrabi that I planted early in the greenhouse last week. Many of the bedding plants go in various raised beds throughout the yard, but I still put some in the garden proper.

Once the bedding plants are done, I start with seeds. I plant flowers (like sweetpeas) and vegetables I grow from seed including beets, various greens, beans, parsnips, radishes etc. This year Leo and Anwyn both helped a bit with planting, which was great, because my planting speed was about one tenth normal Wendy. It is pretty hard to use your Kleenex with muddy hands, so I wore gloves and took them off all the time to blow my nose. I think it was a huge part of the slow down - it definitely had nothing to do with low energy due to sickness.

Now that the garden is all planted and so many of the flowers are blooming, it is a real pleasure to be out,

even when you are sitting in the dirt blowing your nose. I admired my flowers all weekend long and listened to my fountain. I planted a little sedum planter and felt like I did some great craft a la Martha Stewart. I enjoyed fresh asparagus, put basil on our burgers and had chives in my egg salad.  After 7 long months of winter, it is great to be dirty.

For those who'd like to see some pictures, you can see the album of what is blooming and take a look at the mulch Mike and Leo put in the front.

Canning and Freezing

This time of year, we eat as much as we can of the garden produce. However, there are lots of things that we still need to preserve. We are just ending peak raspberry season, when we often pick more than 8 cups of raspberries ever couple of days. As a result, we freeze them, make many things with fresh raspberries and can them.  Last night we made raspberry jam and pickles to add to the raspberry sauce we made the week before. I also froze 8 cups of raspberries.

In the midst of all this we have had guests to hang out with. We had Brad last week and Mom this week, which slows down the yard work but gives you good reason to sit in the yard and enjoy it. I find myself picking in the early morning before others are up, or in between visiting.  This also means squeezing in a chance to use up produce. Today was a classic day for that. Leo made cherry pie this morning, Anwyn made whipping cream and Mike made breakfast loaf.  I made a variety of meal items for everyone including seasonal fruit salad, pasta, and a supper of baby potatoes and fresh vegetables.The pasta had a sauce made from our tomatoes, pepper and herbs. The tomatoes just started last week so we are really loving them. Like carrots, they are much better than what you get in the stores.

Mike and I have also been squeezing in some projects. We finished the bench last week (that's Anwyn driving the support posts with a sledge hammer in the picture to the left), and today we re-hung the fence and made a large entrance for big objects. I had Mike leave some boards off to make room for my crazy plan to grow things on the fence that moves. Yes, I know it is crazy.  More to come on that front.

I find the canning and freezing a bit oppressive at times. There is always more to do, and you can't just take 3 days off. Having said that, I love having it to eat throughout the year. I do all the picking, but Mike usually does the canning and it is nice to have the help. Apples, basil, beans and carrots will all need more of his help soon.

Rich harvest

Living in Zone 2, sometimes it feels like you have barely any time to garden.  My entire frost free period is usually slightly longer than 4 months. I start eating fresh food in the second or third week on June with early spinach (frost hardy), and asparagus and strawberries (early perennials).

By the first week in August, though, I have a rich bounty of fruit, vegetables and herbs. So much so that I pick most days, and we eat fresh produce with most meals. Typically the fruit goes in baking and is eaten fresh on cereal or in yogurt. It is mostly breakfast and desert. My veggies are lunch and supper and I love the variety. My girls claim we rely to heavily on beans in the summer, and Mike asked this week how to cook a kohlrabi, so I suspect they get tired of the same fresh veggies all the time. I never do, though. The yard has such a rich harvest of food, fun and companionship. All summer long, it is my favorite room in the house.

Yesterday, Leora jumped on the trampoline (we traded Liz for the swing set until next summer) and Brad and Mike flew their hovercraft and joined her in archery. We sat out for meals and I read in the hammock. I made pie from fresh raspberries and Mike turned 8 cups of basil into pesto. We ate fresh carrots, zucchini and tomatoes, and used fresh herbs in every meal.

Today I was up early dropping Brad at the airport and I got some special time in the yard. I picked 8 ripe tomatoes (sounds like fresh pizza), 3 peppers, 3 cucumbers, 6 cups beans, 1 cup peas and some apples. Then I cut myself some flowers and enjoyed a cup of tea sitting in my recliner in the early sunshine. By lunch time, the yard was drying my laundry and I was doing some weeding.

One of my favorite things is thinking about what I can eat soon. My corn and beets are almost ready and I think I could steel some potatoes to go with them. My raspberries will probably finish soon, but my strawberries and apples are starting to be ready. I also love trying my new things, like yellow globe cucumbers or new types of peppers. I think all the great time outside is like Gus and Greta at the river, but they don't get all the fresh food the same way. They do, however, have a great waterfall, and are adept at finding harvest without cultivation.

Riot of Color

I love the first week of July. So many of my favorite things are blooming and the yard keeps shifting colors.  Right now, my back yard is very pink, but in a few days, it will be purple. My front yard is a sea of yellow, but in a few days, it will all be covered by a canopy of orange, which is just getting started. Needless to say, I have been out everyday since school ended, wallowing in my yard.

Colors of my island bed in the center of the backyard. After these are done, this bed becomes purple and white. Lavender, daisies, and lilies are next.

Textures of orange and yellow in the front under the pine tree. Currently 6 types of yellow ground covers are blooming, providing a carpet of yellow under all the plants. The yarrow in the foreground is my only orange right now, but in less than a week, there will by 6 types of orange day lilies and asian lilies.

One of 4 blooming roses - all photo credits to Mike.
I will have roses for the next 2 weeks all over the front. Underneath these roses, my hidden veggies are also adding color. Right now I have yellow tomato flowers and big yellow blooms from a variety of squashes.  Soon I will add white bean flowers.  My coriander is already blooming, as are my herbs.




Today I am headed out into my yard to hill potatoes and do a little watering.  Yesterday Mike reinstalled the windows in greenhouse ($74 to put new glass in 2 of them, and 50 km per hour winds again today.  Maybe a glass house was a bad idea. . . ) and I moved the last of my basil starters into the yard. I keep roaming around admiring various flowers and dreaming.  As I sat on the deck this morning I watched baby birds learning fly (no small task in this wind), dragonflies, and butterflies. All this color, beauty and potential is a great start for summer.

Start of good eating

Ironically, just as we are ready to leave the garden, we are starting to eat from it. Yesterday we had a great tomato from the garden and the best kohlrabi. We are eating strawberries everyday and big salads. We have also been able to make our first fresh pesto of the year, which always makes Mike happy. The first of the Saskatoons are starting to ripen so I am nervous we won't get to pick any this year as I am from Teela's from the 8th to the 15th. Last year I picked on the 15th, so if I pick as soon as I get home, it might be fine.

The thing I am most excited about right now is the current success of my organic gardening. Last year, my kohlrabi were destroyed by pests, but so far my mesh covering has worked really well.  This time it is one sheet buried in the dirt, the holes are much smaller. I am still worried because last year at this time I had hope, and then the cabbage moths descended.

I have most of my greens in the square foot bed that I grow on my driveway.  Because this bed gets so much shade, my greens and green onions are doing well but not bolting.  I think my spinach will soon, but I am enjoying it while I can. Last year worms came down from the tree and ate all my baby plants so I had few greens, but I covered this bed as well in the spring and it really helped. I have staggered the plantings of various salad ingredients, so I should have various greens for most of the summer.

Vertical Gardening

One of the best tools I have as a gardener is vertical gardening.  Although I have a large yard by city standards, I have a small one compared to my ambition for it. I want to grow most of the vegetables my family eats over the summer, lots of things to store and cut flowers for every week all summer. My children seem to feel our yard should house large play spaces and archery ranges, and I "need" to dry all my laundry, eat, and relax in my yard.  Space is at a premium.  Just like Tokyo, I go up.

I use nets to grow tomatoes vertically and pots to grow them upside down. Because of the added heat these plants get on the south wall of the garage, they are larger and blooming earlier than those I grow in cages or on stakes in my main garden.

I also use nets to grow on the south side of the house, where I grow cucumbers and peppers. Cucumbers and other trailing vines are a big space hog in the yard, because they need a 4-5 foot radius for growing. Vertically, I can grow two plants per square foot of soil, and the cucumbers are really easy to pick because they hang down right where you can see them, rather than hiding covered by leaves.

I also use verticals for my beans and peas to climb and use cages for unruly flowers and climbing roses. Of all my living walls, my clematis walls are my favorite. I use them to create walls in my garden and provide privacy for the play areas. View all my verticals, and some great butterfly pictures from the garden in my June photos.


Currently eating:

• all herbs
• all greens
• strawberries
• rhubarb
• pea shoots

Things are about a week behind due to my start this year. Last year by June 20th, I already had baby cucumbers etc. On the upside, the front bed I started last year is already well established and I am loving all my flowers.

Currently blooming:

• zhuchini
• poppies
• daisy
• lavedar
• iris
• peony
• columbine
• bleeding heart
• viola
• chives
• citronella
• comfrey
• tomatoes
• roses
•  crainsbill germanium
• yarrow
• 6 types sedum
• passion plant

What will be

It is February break, and I just planted my first bedding plants of the year 4 days ago. My planning process starts in late January when I determine where I will place things in crop rotation in my various beds (read this post for a detailed description of the planning process). We start all our plants in a grow table Mike picked up for us, then transfer them to our green house when it is warm enough. This year it is so warm that the greenhouse is already hitting double digits in the middle of the day sometimes, but it isn't heated and is not warm enough for sprouting.

We have been eating sprouts for a while, and I just planted pea shoots, which are always a treat. The weather has been so nice, I feel less desperate for something fresh to eat, but I am still excited. Pea shoots are great because you can plant and eat them, then cut again and eat them a couple of times until they are too tired to start over.

I have also started the most southern crops we grow, peppers and basil. This year I planted 30 basil plants and 25  peppers. The peppers are mostly bell and mini bell peppers, but I also planted some chili peppers. I will buy a jalapeno bedding plant in the spring to round out our pepper planting.  My timing and plant numbers are similar to last year when we had a good crop of peppers.

The last thing I planted was some spinach and lettuce. Most people don't realize how easy it is to grow your own greens indoor in the winter. Spinach is so hardy that I was cutting my own in my front yard in October last year and will be able to plant it first in the spring in the floor of the greenhouse (built in 2008 by Mike and my dad). We will be eating these greens in March, and they will never be planted in the open garden.

The start of the planting year is always exciting for me. Because I live in a 2B Zone, I have a long, cold winter with a short summer. I really have to make the most of the growing time I have.  Last week we finished the last of our potatoes and we roasted our last pumpkin yesterday. Our last fresh storage vegetable is squash, and once it is gone this week, we'll only be eating frozen, canned and dried things from our 2011 crop. I will spend the next several months planting, dreaming and preparing for my new garden season, then by April, I will be out in the yard again celebrating spring. I spent a happy half an hour on my deck two days ago just anticipating. Mike laughs because I find a small snow-free patch, wrap myself in a blanket and drink hot chocolate just to stay out there.  But like the grow table full of soil, I don't really care about what is.  I can see through that to what will be.

More than one type of Harvest

What a satisfying day this has been. I spent it with people I love, doing things I love, eating fresh things from the yard. It really doesn't get much better than that.

I started my day at 7:30 with a quick breakfast and a trip to have a morning "coffee" with Jaime and Erin. The trees were a beautiful golden colour interlaced with splashes of apple red. By the time we were done, I felt so peaceful and happy that my grocery shopping didn't even dent my zen like calm.  I picked Anwyn up and came home to do a flurry of the weekend chores: three loads of laundry, picking, watering, homework with the girls, and a bath. By 1 I had read my book, loved the leftover root veggies for lunch and was taking laundry off the line.

Perspective is everything. Remaking my bed downstairs I was happy to have fresh sheets, not oppressed by folding all the laundry. I made squares, and felt happy to use some of the zucchinni, apples and raspberries I had frozen, not mad about the dishes. My house is 25C and I have 5 loud girls over who I just taught debate to for two hours, but I am happy. I'll even be happy when 4 of them sleepover tonight. . .

Today I spent time in my yard, and I am cooking a great pasta sauce full of my fresh ingredients for our supper. I picked fresh flowers and celebrated the fact that the new windows open so widely the house will cool quickly. It's a good day, and I have more than one type of harvest. As the girls giggle together over the veggies and dip they are making, I feel very blessed.

Storage

This time of year, most of gardening is about the storage.  Once again we had our first frost while I was gone at Elkridge, but it has only frosted twice so far, and today it was hot again (nearly 30C). As a result of the warmth, I haven't brought many tomatoes in, but I did bring in anything long and vine like. In addition, we've made 3 batches of salsa and lots of pickles. In the garden I still have beets, chard, spinach, kohlrabi, tomatoes, strawberries, carrots and potatoes.

So far I am storing in the cold storage:

• 13 squash
• 4 medium pumpkins, 7 small
• 23 liters salsa
• 21 liters dill pickles
• 12 500 ml jars rhubarb BBQ sauce
• 14 250 jars of raspberry jam
• 7 small jars taco sauce
• 4 500 ml raspberry sauce
• 6 500 ml saskatoon berry sauce
• 7 500 ml jars chutney
• 7 250 ml jars of apple sauce, and 3 500ml apple sauce

Frozen:

• 1 bag jalapeno peppers
• 1 bag habanero peppers
• 1 bag red chili peppers
• 5 small jars pesto
• 16 cups strawberries
• 32 cups rhubarb
• 40 cups apples
• 34 cups raspberries
• 8 cups zucchini
• 26 cups saskatoons
• 12 cups basil
• 3 cups oregano
• 4 cups mint

Leftover from last year I have 1 jar pickled beet, 2 jars apple sauce and 1 jar jam.  Not bad, really. My family will eat almost all of it by June next year, and we ate as much of our harvest as we could this summer.

My harvest was similar to previous years in many areas, although I got a lot more peppers and tomatoes this year than either of the last two.  We made dramatically more pickles and salsa, but I froze similar amounts of spices. I am really glad to have this blog as a comparison point, because it helps me know what to grow and how to save it.  For example, if I look at my harvest in 2009, I can see I almost had enough salsa with 18 liters.  I knew how much more to make this year as a result.

Harvest

This morning my family went to Osler and I went out into my yard.  After an early morning grocery shop, I really felt like all I wanted to do was just sit around, but I ignored the feeling because I knew it wasn't a good one for me.  My friend Jodi does the same thing when she heads into her sewing room even though she doesn't want to.

I spent the morning picking produce in my garden, and pruning and picking in the front.  It was great.  I picked the following:

• two ice cream pails tomatoes
• two ice cream pails cucumbers
• one large zuchinni
• two kohlrabi (one purple, one regular)
• 1 cup of strawberries
• 8 sunflower heads, ready to dry
• some fresh apples for nibbling
• 9 corn on the cob
• one ice cream pail of beans (purple, yellow and green)

Sounds like a good a good harvest, right?  It was, the best harvest was me. As I was pruning and watering,  I could feel by feelings of being tired and overwhelmed with all the summer craziness drain away.  After cooking for so many all summer, I felt like I'd never want to cook anything again, and now I am happily in my kitchen making Kashmiri potatoes, mango and pepper tofu and concord grapes for my lunch, and I'm delighted to be doing it.

Ah, time self in the yard.  Nothing like it to fill up this introvert after an exciting, people-filled summer and the first week of school.  This afternoon, I think I'll read a book and have a hot bath.

Lessons for next year

This year in the garden has taught me some good things for next year.  In some areas, it went very well.  I have had lots of beans all year long.  My beet crop will be good and my second planting of peas (especially in full sun under the sprinkler) did really well and gave me peas until August 15th. My peas and squashes did well together, and when the peas came out, it gave the squash the perfect room. The basil supply is ideal for Mike's obsession, as are the three mint plants for my family drinking ice tea. The apples are a few more than we need, so if we don't have a lot of guests, I should give some away. One row of chard and repeated plantings of spinach is shady beds is the exact amount we need in summer months

Notes for next year:

• Plant twice as many pickling cucumbers as slicers
• Plant 1/3 Cherry and Pear tomatoes, and the rest in Early Girl and Romas
• It is fine if carrots are a bit patchy. Water a lot in the spring. Carrot tapes are dumb
• Cut the flower off of the garlic for bigger bulbs. Plant Saskatchewan Garlic in Oct.
• Small pumpkins are best
• Zucchini will do fine with half sun
• Planting beets next to peas gives beets room to grow when peas come out
• Buy dense mesh for the cabbage moths and pin it in lots of places
• Plant more Romain at the end of June and in the second week of August

Today I was out in my garden dead heading flowers and weeding a bit (this is my second attempt in August, when I rarely weed as plants are well established), and I was thinking that  I am delighted with the amount of produce given the hail.  We have enough tomatoes this week to eat them all week and make large pizzas.  I hope we have enough in the end for salsa. It is nice to have learned so much about planting that I actually get nearly twice as much as I did when I moved into this house.

Today is Mike and I's anniversary - we've been married 17 years. I can remember how excited we were to have a "garden feast" a week before the wedding out of our second garden at 518 Albert Ave.  It was small potatoes, dill weed, and beans.  I can so easily put that to shame now, but the lessons I learned planting those first gardens only get refined over the years of gardening and marriage.  They are simple things, like tending to little issues means you don't have disasters, or when there is a disaster, hard work and focusing on the positive helps you pull together to get it solved. Like my garden, my marriage can do so much more now that we have more expertise and experience, but it still has issues that set things back.  After hail on the garden this week and the failure to order windows, I am reminded that focusing on the harvest you do get helps you to keep loving your garden.

Destruction

Destruction struck my garden on the 15th while I was relaxing at a movie with my sister Greta.  We left the movie chatting to step out into a bit of hail. We had driven less than 500 meters before it was hard to see.  On the way home we had to pull over because visibility was terrible, and I took an alternate route to avoid flash floods. I couldn't even hear Greta shouting, the hails was so loud on the van roof.

My lawn was carpeted in hail and flooded (Leo forgot two rain barrels open) when I got home. My pillow was also damp as my bedroom window was open.  However, the biggest devastation was my yard - I actually ran on a thick carpet of hail to close the rain barrel. In the morning, the hail was gone but the destruction remained.

Leaves were scattered everywhere and all the leaves still on plants had holes in them.  The hail was about pea to marble sized, and a few days later, so many of leaves are damaged that there is yellow all over my yard.  It looks like fall.  Liz says there was no hail at her house which is only 3km away, so it appears to have been fairly localized.

Here are some images from my garden - they aren't to Mike's standard since he was happily climbing mountains while I took them.

Max's play tent - blown across the half of the yard and luckily caught by the apple tree. The tunnel and the other tent were blown to the back of the garden.

 

My shredded corn and one of Max's other tents.

 Many tomatoes were knocked off the plants and a lot of tomato branches were broken. Even the tomatoes that stayed on were not great.

A sample of the rhubarb crushed by hail.  The rhubarb and the remaining apples were pulverized. I froze both for use this month and baked some of the 10 gallon pail of apples, which were covered in little round bruises.

The hardest part of the whole thing was loosing so much of the garden right as it is producing. We are currently eating:

• rhubarb
• apples
• spagetti squash
• pumpkin
• beans (three types)
• the last of the peas (yesterday)
• baby carrots and beats
• kholrabi
• two types of cucumbers
• six types of peppers
• three types of tomatoes
• all herbs (I froze a large ziploc of mint the day before the hail)
• chard, spinach and beet greens
• potatoes
• corn

On the upside, my average of 5 guests all summer long has actually resulted in less that winter grocery bills (ones for just my family) because the garden is producing so well. View all hail pictures.

Groceries

Going for groceries is a weekly trip for me that starts with menu planning.  This time of year it is challenging because I don't know when I will have guests and the garden is producing so much I tend to cook based on what is available.  When I went shopping yesterday I bought almost no vegetables by my family's standard (they are normally our main staple), just tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers.  My own tomatoes and peppers are just starting to be ripe, as I have harvested only one green chili and a cherry tomato, and I only grew oyster mushrooms once with help from Greta and Gus.

Fruit is a bit more extensive, as less grows here. I bought cherries, melon, plums and nectarines.  We grow our own sour cherries, but no plums, and we can't grow melons and eating cherries.  Still, we currently have sour cherries, a few strawberries, rhubarb and raspberries. This turned into great rhubarb-raspberries bars for breakfast.

At lunch today we had peas, beans and kohlrabi with a homemade potato soup (not our potatoes yet) and homemade bread. Yesterday we had our own greens as the foundation of a salad, and a curry with rhiata (I am using up cucumbers and mint). As a result of my impromptu menu, we run out of dairy products, but still have lots to eat.  It is hard to know when to shop, but somehow I manage to spend $200 anyway. 

Teela, Peff and the kids arrived yesterday and I showed them around the yard a little and sent them home with peas before they went grocery shopping.  Hopefully, they will have the same issue. Merlina and Viola loved the yard and spent a while grazing on raspberries and peas.  It was fun to have them, and I hope I'll get to be a grocery store and garden  for them a number of times this summer. Makes me feel like a great grandma, even though I am just evil Aunty Wendy.